


Can't Help Acting On...

by Temaris



Category: Primeval
Genre: Adventure, Dinosaurs, F/M, Gen, impulse control issues, trapped in a cave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-30
Updated: 2008-06-30
Packaged: 2017-10-19 09:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/199434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Temaris/pseuds/Temaris





	Can't Help Acting On...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deinonychus-1](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=deinonychus-1).



_**Primeval fic: Can't Help Acting On...**_  
Written for the [Primeval Ficathon](http://alyse.livejournal.com/556266.html), run by the ever stylish [](http://alyse.livejournal.com/profile)[**alyse**](http://alyse.livejournal.com/) and [](http://aithine.livejournal.com/profile)[**aithine**](http://aithine.livejournal.com/)

Written for [](http://deinonychus-1.livejournal.com/profile)[**deinonychus_1**](http://deinonychus-1.livejournal.com/) , who asked for Connor/Abby and dangerous creatures. I added in caves and a little romance. Enjoy :-)

Rating: PG (for violence against dinosaurs)

Thanks to [](http://aithine.livejournal.com/profile)[**aithine**](http://aithine.livejournal.com/) for the lightning beta :-)

  
  
Connor raised his head cautiously. A roar echoed up from the back of the cave and he ducked down again, wincing.

"It's still looking for us," he said, a little sheepishly, as he slumped back to the cold, slightly damp ground. His coat had ridden up a little where he'd slid his back down the boulder trying to fit into the narrow gap, and he shivered.

"Really?" Abby looked at him, her eyes wide in mock surprise. He ducked his head; talk about awkward. Better find a different topic.

"I don't suppose --" He hesitated, taking a rare moment to put the brakes on his otherwise runaway mouth. But really, caves, near death experience, adrenaline pumping, the two of them, hiding in tight *tight* quarters -- he spared a moment to relish the feel of her shoulder against his, her hip wedged in close -- it was practically obligatory --

"You don't suppose *what*, exactly?" she asked, eyeing him dubiously.

"Oh, nothing, nothing." He fiddled with the anomaly detector. "It's still open."

"Good. I don't have to kill you yet, then."

"Right. Right. Um." He fiddled with it some more. "I'm pretty sure Cutter made it. You know. Back." He tried a smile, but didn't look up, just in case.

"He can join the queue when we get back."

"What queue--ow!" He rubbed his head where she'd just swatted him. It was not turning out to be a good day. If he'd had his hat, that wouldn't have hurt. Sadly, his hat was somewhere outside the cave. Or maybe it was waterlogged and half drowned in the shallow sea that they'd been skipping stones, okay, fine, *he'd* been skipping stones over when some trigger happy over-enthusiastic baryonyx had popped up out of nowhere and either decided they looked delicious as an aperitif, or had taken exception to getting beaned on the snout with a fifteen skip stone.

"I bet it could have gone further if it hadn't got in the way."

There was a faint thump. Somehow, even not looking at her he could see her eyes roll. "I bet the dinosaur could have gone further if I hadn't dragged you behind a rock, too." A rumble came from outside, and they both shut up, Connor jamming the anomaly detector into his chest, trying to conceal the sound. Something scraped harshly across rock.

"It can't get in, it can't get in, it can't get in," he muttered, barely voicing the words. His knees ached; he was folded up like a pretzel to keep himself behind the actually not very large at all boulder that Abby had found.

And he didn't have his hat.

He felt Abby shift, pushing herself up to look over the rock again. Her hair shone in the scant light, and in leaning up, she was also leaning on him, her chest surprisingly close to his face. Not looking, he reminded himself firmly, and instead, breathed in deep.

Wow. His eyes slid shut. Really. Kinda. He swallowed. Maybe it was that impulse stuff. She couldn't blame him if it was and he just...

"Can you hear that?"

Connor jolted. It felt almost like Abby was breathing into his ear and oops. That was going to make running problematic. "Hear, hear," he stuttered, coughed, and finally managed to spit out, "hear what?"

They didn't move. Connor barely breathed, though it had to be admitted that somehow or other, that lush, warm scent seemed to be filling his nose up anyway. His nose twitched.

They could hear the wind outside. Water rippled quietly, a soft rush and sigh of tumbled sand and rocks. The distinctive sound of something wading. Abby gripped his arm, hard enough to bruise. He nodded, though in the near complete darkness, she probably couldn't see him move. His breathing, his heartbeat, the creak of his muscles and the slide of his clothes as he shifted were stiflingly loud.

"We can't stay here forever," she said, and before he really grasped what she meant, slipped around the side of the boulder, and edged towards the cave mouth.

"Abby!" he hissed, voice strangled as he tried not to attract the dinosaur back, but get her attention. She pressed a finger to her lips, never taking her eyes off the entrance of the cave. This particular baryonyx was way too big at nearly eight metres tall to get into the cave, but that didn't stop those long arms – and longer claws – reaching in deep.

He eyed the distance from the cave entrance. Abby probably had another six inches, at most, and assuming it couldn't reach further than it already had done, or didn't decide to duck low and shove its jaw into the darkness again...

"Abby!" he called quietly, agonised. He looked around helplessly, then straightened up. "Fine. But if we get eaten—"

She flashed a brilliant grin at him. "I'll let you get away with as many 'I told you so's as you want."

"Oh, that'll be a lot of help when we're being digested and turned into confusing fossils," he grumbled, but set his back against the wall of the cave and took a cautious step forward. Nothing. The Early Cretaceous was ignoring them. Hopefully.

Abby jerked her head towards the entrance, but when Connor took a cautious step forward, sliced her hand in a Stop! Now! kind of way. He stopped, balanced on one leg, and wobbled. He fell, very slowly, painfully slowly, aware of how loud he was going to hit, how bad an idea this was going to be, how horrified Abby looked—

He hit the wall, stumbled, righted himself. A long grey-green arm with a foot long claw ripped through the air, caught his coat just under the arm. Another six inches and he'd have been half eviscerated. As it was, he jerked away, rolling his shoulders to let the coat go, Christ, off, off, *off*.

The coat tore; the buttons wouldn't, oh god – stay, no, no, "Abby, *no*!"

She rolled across the open floor, and the baryonyx snapped its head forward, long alligator-like jaws slamming shut on nothing, thank god. He struggled with the buttons, the coat pulled tight around his chest, no slack to get free, and then a knife, biting at his fingers. Abby was yelling into his face, and for some reason the blood in his ears or the gravelly roar of the dinosaur or the memory of his blithe, oh, hey, they only eat fish, blocked all the meaning out if her words until she slapped his hands away. She gripped the top of his coat and dragged her knife down the front of his coat, jerking hard at each point of resistance, until suddenly the coat was disappearing around him, dragged off him, and hey, dammit, *dammit*, that was his favourite coat *and* his favourite hat.

The baryonyx snapped the coat out and they scrambled back to the rear of the cave again. Ripping sounds suggested that there wasn't going to be any rescuing that.

"--*Connor*!" Two small, strong hands gripped his face and forcibly turned him to look at Abby. "Did it get you?"

He shook his head, no, no, "It didn't touch, God, it didn't touch me – that was my favourite coat!"

Abby shook her head and smiled with relief. "Idiot. Like a coat matters against your life."

"I didn't – the buttons, it wouldn't—"

"I know." She ruffled his hair, then buried her face abruptly in his shoulder. "I thought that thing had," she mumbled, and didn't move. After a minute or so, he cautiously eased his arm out from under her and patted her clumsily on her back.

"I'm fine," he whispered back. "See, nothing keeps the Connormeister down." He shifted, and added, "Abby?"

"Yeah?" her voice was still a little muffled.

"Abby, is there – did you fall in a puddle?"

"The ground's wet. Tides, caves, oceans. You're fine." She eased him to the ground, and stroked his hair back, which was in no way reassuring except for how it actually was. "It's just shock." She ran a hand down his flank, which should have been more fun than it turned out to be, what with the way her hand turned red. "It's just a scratch. Honestly, Connor, I've had worse from Rex."

Connor glared at her. "You have not," he accused, "I'd've seen something like that," and Abby smirked at him.

"What makes you think you've seen everything I've got, boyo? "

Connor snorted, and then they were both giggling, which was kind of insane, but he felt a hell of a lot better afterwards. Without really thinking about it, he leaned forwards a little and pressed a kiss to her soft, smiling lips.

He pulled back, eyeing her warily, until she shook her head. He started to slump – at least he'd tried – and she pulled him back up and planted a firm kiss on his lips. "If I'd known this was what you were waiting for I'd've taken you to the Cheddar Gorge months ago."

"Cheddar what?"

"Cheesy cave situation," she grinned at him, and dipped in for another kiss. He still wasn't entirely clear on what she was going on about, but on the whole, he felt that between the shock of being nearly gutted, and the shock of being kissed he was entitled to a little downtime.

He didn't really want to call a halt to anything (*God* he didn't want to call a halt to anything, *but*): "Baryonyx?"

"Hmm?" Abby seemed to be fairly distracted by his ears. He was feeling kind of distracted too, come to think of it. "Oh, it couldn't reach in this far before."

"We can't just sit here, the anomaly – "

Abby shook her head. "We're going to have to wait him out. There'll be another anomaly." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and sighed, settling her head against his.

The light shifted as time passed. The baryonyx didn't move. Cutter had speculated that it was like grizzlies, able to just lie still and wait for its prey to come to it.

Three hours.

Abby looked up, her face tense. Connor heard it too. Shouting. Cutter had come in after them. But the shouting attracted other things, it seemed, and after an endless two minutes of gun fire, the shouts stopped, and the sounds died down. The lake was teeming with life; the estuary shallow and wide. Far too many predators found easy pickings here. Of course that's where the anomaly had formed.

Connor shook his head. "They're fine," he muttered, lips close to her ear.

"Shhh," she replied, and they kept still, wrapped up together, hoping that they were just regrouping. They'd be back. Soon.

Any time now.

Another hour passed.

A distant splash caught their attention, and the shadows outside the cave shifted. They weren't the only ones who'd heard it. Their eyes met. Connor opened his mouth to say 'fisheater! Told you so' , but Abby put a hand over his lips before he'd more than breathed in to begin, and shook her head sharply. She leaned in and said, very, very softly, "Wait."

The splashing came again. The shadows shifted. A fish in the claw versus two humans in the cave. Make the right choice, dino, Connor thought, and had to stifle a laugh. No distracting it just as it was ready to give up on them. That would be bad.

More splashing, and the shadow was gone. They knelt up, peeking over the rock again, hoping – and could see clear down to the dirty green waters of the vast inland sea. The baryonyx was stalking something, slowly, slowly -- and a mosasaur lurched up, its jaws locked around a large fish that the baryonyx had been hoping to catch for itself, judging by its prompt snatch for ownership.

Their eyes met. They scrambled to their feet, Abby grabbed the anomaly detector, and they edged out of the cave, up the low banks, and scurried, bent low to the ground, across the wide estuary, hopping from tump of mud and grass to patch of mud and fern and on and on, slipping and silent, until the anomaly was in sight.

Connor was breathing hard as he snatched a quick look over his shoulder. The baryonyx was ripping the mosasaur to pieces, and he gulped hard.

"Come on!" Abby growled, and he pressed down on the stitch in his side and ran the last fifteen yards, tumbling straight through the anomaly and practically into the arms of a small strike force.

Cutter was standing at the back, holding Connor's shredded coat, grey eyes grim until he saw them, and his whole face lit up. "Where the hell have you two been? What've you been playing at? We thought –" he stopped, but Connor and Abby could see what he'd thought, and Abby shook her head.

"We're fine." She slipped her hand into Connor's and tugged him forward through the snickering special forces guys. Connor was pretty sure there was a remarkably silly grin on his face as they came to a halt in front of Nick. "We're both fine."

Nick grabbed at them both and hugged them, squeezing until Connor protested, and then let them go as abruptly. "You dafties, what am I going to do with you?"

Connor grinned. "You know, I'm thinking I could murder a fish dinner."


End file.
